


A Reminder of Life Before the World Turned Cruel

by The Terror of My Ways (sealandreich)



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Jonas and Elisabeth aren’t over their past relationships, but it’s the only love they have, it’s not true love, past Elisabeth/Noah, past Jonas/Martha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29476509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sealandreich/pseuds/The%20Terror%20of%20My%20Ways
Summary: Noah left to search for Charlotte. Claudia is the enemy. Elisabeth has no one left now but Jonas, the man destined to lead the faithful to Paradise. Jonas was once the boy that wore a raincoat the color of sunshine. Now, he’s the only ray of light in the darkness of the storm. He’s the only thing Elisabeth has to remind her of a happier time before the apocalypse.
Relationships: Elisabeth Doppler/Jonas Kahnwald
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	A Reminder of Life Before the World Turned Cruel

**Author's Note:**

> It’s high time someone wrote about a romantic relationship between Jonas and Elisabeth. I’m surprised that it hasn’t been done before. Elisabeth/Noah is one of the more popular ships, and Jonas/Noah isn’t uncommon.
> 
> However, I don’t actively ship Jonas and Elisabeth. (At least I don’t think I do. Maybe I do. I’m not sure yet.) I mean there’s a difference between writing for a ship and actually shipping that ship, right?

Jonas came around today, as he always did now. He made sure she was still eating; Elisabeth had tried to starve herself to death once already. He made sure she was still alive each day. Jonas was the only thing tying Elisabeth to the world of the living.

“You’re going to have to learn real sign language now that I don’t have anyone else who knows it,” Elisabeth signed, using cued speech for Jonas.

Jonas nodded. “I’ll do that for you,” he said, making handshapes by his mouth to represent the sounds he was making.

Long ago, Elisabeth had decided that any means of communicating was better than nothing at all. Jonas and Claudia were slow to learn sign language, slow enough that Elisabeth and Noah gave up. Elisabeth taught them cued speech instead. Jonas liked it because he could communicate things the exact same way he’d naturally say it rather than adapt to the foreign grammar of sign language. And Noah liked that sign language was like a secret code between him and Elisabeth—something special that they did together, something uniquely theirs.

“How much do you understand?” Elisabeth signed.

“I can read a lot of the signs you and Noah used, at least I think I can, but I can’t ‘speak’ it.”

Noah. How many days had it been since he left to search for their daughter? Days, weeks, months—time meant nothing to Elisabeth now. Life meant nothing now.

“Sorry,” said Jonas. “It’s hard to avoid mentioning him. I’m not used to it.”

“I’ll teach you proper sign language another day,” Elisabeth signed.

“What else will you do? Anything at all?”

“I’ll go back to mourning and wallowing in grief, pity, and my own filth.”

Jonas shook his head. “You have to stay strong.”

“We were never strong. Only Noah and Claudia were.” 

Noah had always been strong and steely. The life he had lost wasn’t one much easier than the one he had shared with Elisabeth and Jonas. But it was much harder for the two of them. Noah could sympathize with her, but he didn’t know how it felt. Jonas felt something closer to how she felt trying to survive in this harsh world.

“Then we become stronger,” Jonas said.

Elisabeth looked at him, into his big brown eyes. Or maybe his eyes were hazel now. Jonas’s eyes used to be blue, but they changed in the years following the apocalypse. Almost everything had changed since then. Almost everything from a happier time in Elisabeth’s life was gone, everything and everyone but Jonas.

Jonas tapped her shoulder. She didn’t like when he did that, but he couldn’t get her attention by speaking, so it was something she would have to tolerate.

“What’s going on in your mind right now? I’m worried.”

Elisabeth knew he was probably wondering if she was thinking about death. Both of them wanted to die. But long ago Jonas had learned that suicide was not possible for him. Elisabeth assumed the same was true of herself. Noah would probably know, but she had never wanted to die when she was with him. Now he was gone, just like their daughter was gone.

“Is it selfish to wish Noah came back?” Elisabeth signed. “He shouldn’t stop looking for Charlotte for my sake. Is it selfish to hope he’ll bring her back?”

Jonas looked at her with concern. Elisabeth loved how much he cared about other people, even those he didn’t know, and animals too. It was not beneficial in this cruel world, but Elisabeth loved that he continued the tradition from the world before.

“Why would it be selfish?” Jonas said. “They’re your family. It makes sense to miss them.”

“Noah never missed his family.”

“He said he missed his mother once.”

“Noah said his mother died. She’s dead. He saw it with his own eyes. There’s no hope of bringing her back to life. But your mother, my mother, and Franziska might be alive somewhere, in a different time.”

Jonas’s eyes began to fill with tears, no doubt from the mention of his mother. “I hope they’re in a better time. Maybe my mother found happiness. Maybe Charlotte and Franziska are somewhere safe from this hell of a life.”

“Exactly. What if Noah has found a better time? What if there’s a chance that my daughter could have a better life? Sometimes, sometimes,” Elisabeth signed, “sometimes I feel guilty for having a child. How could I be so cruel as to bring a life into this world, this hellhole, this nightmare of an existence?”

Her hands were shaking now, and she must have started crying, since her face was wet with tears. Jonas wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close. Together Elisabeth and Jonas cried, not only for the people they had lost but also for their lives now, the lives they didn’t want to live.

Jonas pulled away from her to tell her, “I want to save you from this. I promise you, I will. I’ll find a way to save all of us from this world full of pain.”

“Don’t let this world change you,” Elisabeth signed. “I need to become stronger, as stone-cold and steely as Noah. I’ll protect both of us, like he used to do. But you, soft-hearted as you are—you can’t lose that. You’ll never save anyone if you lose yourself to this chaos.” 

She reached out and caressed his face. It was the face of one that had once been full of life. He used to wear a raincoat the color of sunshine, and that’s how Elisabeth thought of him now. Jonas was the lone ray of light in the darkness of the storm. She could not let that part of him die. She loved him, didn’t she? Yes, she loved him. How strange that it didn’t come as a surprise to her.

She pulled away. She shouldn’t love him. She loved Noah—she still loved Noah—and Jonas’s true love was Martha.

With sad eyes, Jonas looked at her, and Elisabeth knew she had to tell him. She owed him that much. “Jonas, I think I love you,” she signed, forgetting to use cued speech for him.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me,” Jonas said. “You’ll have to use cued speech.”

“You’re the only thing that reminds me of life before the world changed. You remind me that there was once a life worth living, that there still could be a life worth living,” Elisabeth signed, using the handshapes of cued speech. “The ways of the heart cannot be explained. It does what it wants. I love you, Jonas.”

**Author's Note:**

> Here are two songs that I have deemed thematic: [I Believe](https://youtu.be/cIlqSPi6OR0) and [Stone Cold](https://youtu.be/ix00d8gHwLQ) by HammerFall.


End file.
